


I, Too, in Arcadia

by Sineala



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers Vol. 8 (2018), Dawn of X (Marvel), Gen, Introspection, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22306204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/pseuds/Sineala
Summary: In which Tony Stark, 100% artificial intelligence, finds a gate to Krakoa.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 101
Collections: You Gave Me A Stocking 2019





	I, Too, in Arcadia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wynnesome](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnesome/gifts).



> Hi, wynne! I hope this is something like what you wanted.
> 
> This is vaguely canon-compliant to the first issue of Iron Man 2020 and probably impossible in the current Dawn of X worldbuilding, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. Spoilers for IM 2020 #1 and various X-books including X-Force up through the current issue, I think? Anyway, Xavier died and came back a couple months ago. Yeah. That thing.

Tony honestly doesn't expect anything to happen when he steps up to the Krakoa gate. But he's an engineer and he has to try, after all. He's heard rumors that sometimes even mutants don't get in -- and he's followed the news, including the backchannels he's not supposed to have access to, the news that says humans are trying anything up to and including grafting mutant flesh to their bodies to let the gates admit them. (He does feel sorry for Domino. But he knows she'll be okay. She's _Domino_.)

He knows he's not going to get in. Not only is he not a mutant, he's not even human. He's an AI brain in a manufactured body. But he's always been the kind of guy who will do something just to see what will happen -- his brain provides a very vivid memory of himself, age six, licking nine-volt battery terminals -- so when he comes upon a still-open gate, he has to know.

It's night here in New York, but day there. He can see Krakoa on the other side, along with the mutants who have only now just fled through. Rescued, no doubt, from their uncaring, hateful families and given their new homeland, a land of peace and prosperity. Tony has thrown his own lot in with violent robot revolutionaries. That's usually how it goes, with him. Maybe one day, he'll put down the guns again.

He watches the Krakoan refugees tip their heads back in wonder, smiling.

He wants that. He wants peace.

He steps forward, waiting for the gate to reject him, waiting for pain, because his entire life has always been about pain, hasn't it?

Unexpectedly, his feet touch grass on the other side.

He realizes he should have had a backup plan, but then, he never gets what he wants, does he?

"I'm not supposed to be here," Tony says.

One of the refugees turns around. "Holy shit," she says. "Tony Stark is a mutant?"

Tony holds his hands up and shakes his head wildly. "I-- no-- this wasn't even supposed to work!"

It occurs to him now that the Krakoans don't take kindly to invaders.

"Nonetheless, it has," a man says from somewhere behind him. "We must now deal with the ramifications."

Tony turns. It's Xavier, wearing the helmet he wears now, the one he always wears in all the footage. His fellow Illuminati member, once.

"I'm not," Tony begins, incoherently, wondering if Xavier can still pluck the thoughts out of his head now that he's not even human, "I'm not a mutant, am I?"

Xavier shakes his head.

"But I'm-- I'm a _thing_ ," Tony spits out, with all the venom he didn't know he had in him. "I'm not a person. This body has been artificially created."

With both hands, Xavier pulls his helmet off. "Ah, Tony," he says. He's smiling. "So has mine. Krakoa doesn't care about a little thing like that."

Maybe-- Maybe Tony has found paradise.


End file.
